Rostow Ravanan, CEO, Mindtree, describes his first year at work

Admin| Mar 15, 2017 - 01:18 AM
India

As a new employee at Price water house, my brief was to understand the requirements of auditing, company law and financial reporting and work towards making sure that we followed the norms. I was assigned to a team, where I worked very closely with the leader and seniors to understand what had to be done. As part of auditing assignments, I interviewed the client's finance team members and went about making reports. I learnt to prioritise and allocate time to activities judiciously.

The worst mistake I madeI was enthusiastic about learning and finding new ways to tackle given tasks and, thankfully, didn’t commit any major errors.

The best leadership lesson I learntAn important lesson I learnt and still put to use is that the investment you make in grooming new recruits helps both them and you. Every leader needs to take time out of the current workload to groom young talent and reap the benefits in future assignments.

My biggest innovationI was among the earliest in the team to take an interest in and learn how to operate a computer. This was the early 90s, when computers were just entering the workplace, and I was at a cusp where typewriters and computers co-existed. I learnt how to use a computer for word processing, spreadsheets, etc. I also learnt how to write macros in Lotus123, which helped in analysing financial information.

How I had fun at workPushing myself to read more, meet more people, and learn more always gave me a high. Plus, the job gave me opportunities to travel to villages as well as big cities.

How I managed my work-life balanceWork-life balance was not a big issue at that time. I was young, starting my career and did not have any other responsibilities.